Detroit public school teachers won’t have to stop their weeks of protests against appalling conditions in the schools, a judge ruled Monday, refusing to give the school system’s management the injunction it was seeking. The teachers have closed many of the city’s schools by staging sick-outs, but a judge said there was no proof that the Detroit Federation of Teachers had organized the protests.
That means teachers can keep drawing attention to rotting food, moldy food, fungus, crumbling buildings, and vermin. What students and teachers are facing in these schools should be a national scandal:
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan recently ordered inspections for all Detroit schools, which began earlier this month. The inspectors found 16 violations at Spain Elementary Middle School, including rodents, missing floor tiles, water damage, mold, and broken glass, according to the Detroit News. Ben Carson High School, named after Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson, had 17 code concerns such as missing ceiling tiles and needed elevator and bathroom repairs.
Maybe the school system, which is not only under the control of the corrupt emergency manager system but is actually led by the former emergency manager for lead-poisoned Flint, should be putting more energy into fixing those problems—and less into trying to block teachers from protesting them.